Esopus pays overdue $6,700 electric bill for sewer pump station

ESOPUS, N.Y.; -- Town officials have paid a long-overdue $6,700 electric bill run up by the Birches at Esopus sewer pump station.

Supervisor John Coutant on Wednesday said payment of the bill was authorized during a Sept. 3 Town Board meeting and waives penalties accumulated for charges that have gone unpaid since the pump station went online in October 2008.

"It's a separate bill from the rest of the Birches complex," he said. "The original intent was after the complex was built that the town would be taking over that pump station and putting it as part of the municipal system."

However, the pump station was never accepted for municipal ownership due to continuing disputes with Birchez Associates project developer Steve Aaron.

Advertisement

"There was some confusion back at square one as to just when we would be able to do that because certain things came about that prevented us from doing it," Coutant said. "One of the issues was that there was a tremendous amount of grease that was getting into the system."

Port Ewen Water and Sewer District Superintendent Don Kiernan said Birchez Associates had also not provided the town with easements and right-of-ways necessary for ownership changes.

Birches at Esopus, which occupies a seven-acre property off U.S. Route 9W south of Port Ewen, consists of 60 two-bedroom and 20 two-bedroom units for tenants age 55 and older.

Coutant said Central Hudson sent a notice to Aaron in August that the electricity would be turned off if the bill was not paid.

"There were several times prior to that they had threatened to do so and Steve was able to convince them he was negotiating with the town," he said. "But it reached the point where they looked like they were pretty serious this time and the information plus the written document was given to the Town Board."

Coutant said board members were not aware at the time that Central Hudson would have been prevented by state health and environmental regulations from turning off the electricity.

"Don (Kiernan) came back from vacation and said it would have never been allowed ... but nobody on the board knew about that or thought about that," he said. "The urgency of just keeping the sewer working was the priority of the board at that point."